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U.S. Securites and Exchange Commission
LITIGATION RELEASE NO. 15021 \ August 22, 1996
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION V. ROBERT L. SHULL, LEONARD E.
FIESSEL, AND COLLEEN FIESSEL (United States District Court for
the District of Massachusetts, Civil Action No. 94-11759-REK)
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today the
entry of final judgments by the Honorable Robert E. Keeton of the
United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
against Robert L. Shull ("Shull"), Leonard E. Fiessel ("L.
Fiessel") and Colleen A. Fiessel ("C. Fiessel"). The Court
permanently enjoined Shull, L. Fiessel and C. Fiessel from
violating Sections 5 and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933
("Securities Act") and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934 ("Exchange Act") and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The
Court also ordered Shull, L. Fiessel and C. Fiessel to pay
disgorgement and prejudgment interest of $667,770.46,
$560,611.92, and $139,602.11, respectively, for a total of
$1,367,984.40. Shull consented to the entry of the final
judgment without admitting or denying the allegations in the
Commission's Complaint. The Court entered the final judgments
against L. Fiessel and C. Fiessel after they were defaulted.
The Complaint, which was filed on August 31, 1994, alleges
that from January 1993 to September 1993, Shull and the Fiessels
agreed to acquire a controlling interest in Fairmont Resources
Inc. ("Fairmont"), to manipulate the price of Fairmont's stock
and to sell their holdings in Fairmont at prices that were
artificially enhanced by their manipulation. To further this
scheme, Shull and the Fiessels paid kickbacks in the form of cash
and/or stock to one U.S. promoter and five U.S. stockbrokers.
The Complaint alleges that the kickbacks, the total value of
which was approximately $600,000, were essentially bribes to
induce the stockbrokers to recommend and sell Fairmont stock to
their U.S. retail brokerage customers and resulted in the sale of
over one million shares of Fairmont to more than 150 residents in
seventeen states. The Complaint further alleges that Shull and
the Fiessels used several Canadian brokerage accounts in various
names to conduct a pattern of manipulative trades in Fairmont
during the spring of 1993. As a result of their manipulative
activity, the price of Fairmont rose from $0.30 (Canadian) per
share to $3.05 (Canadian) per share in a period of less than six
months.
The federal court previously entered orders enjoining
Patrick Collins, Mark Hamel ("Hamel"), Robert Raffa ("Raffa"),
Jeffrey Fernandez, Michael Murphy and William Cho ("Cho") from
future violations of the securities laws and ordering
disgorgement of the amounts each received as kickbacks from Shull
and the Fiessels. The Commission barred them from association
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with any broker, dealer, municipal securities dealer, investment
advisor or investment company, and from participating in the
offering of any penny stock. Raffa, Hamel and Cho also have
pleaded guilty to federal criminal securities fraud charges.
For further information, see Litigation Release Nos. 14213,
14342, 14352, 14441.